The Studio is a part of three studio project series and it is the International Placemaking Studio, preceded by the Nordic Studio - Urban Public Places and Advanced Urban Space Studio.
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The Studio is a part of three studio project series and it is the International Placemaking Studio, preceded by the Nordic Studio - Urban Public Places and Advanced Urban Space Studio. The aim for all three studios is to foresee urban planning and design issues and problems that will be coming into the public focus in the near future. After completing this international studio the students will be able to fully grasp and understand the dynamic conditions acting on modern cities, specifically issues of regional urbanization, urbanistic genericism and informal globalization. Creating consciousness through concrete examples that place the social reality of a site at the forefront of political discussion will be a nunaced element that the students will acquire during the course of their work with the project. Students will be able to adopt a placemaking approach that is a humanistic process defined by reality. The studio adopts concrete strategies for physical appropriation and production through the students work which will envision a platform for public performance to serve as a catalyst for social reform. Finally the studio offers students a completely different approach to intervention in the public realm, one of kinetic accupuncture method based on inclusivity and transformative placemaking strategies - making a public space into a living place. [STUDIO WILL FEATURE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDY TRIP WITHIN THE PROJECT]

Develop an innovative approach to planning grounded in theory and lively academic debate, and focused on the knowledge, skills and competencies required for employment in the area.
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Develop an innovative approach to planning grounded in theory and lively academic debate, and focused on the knowledge, skills and competencies required for employment in the area.

You base your studies on real life issues and case studies. This allows you to develop the range of skills and competencies to enter into a planning career. The course also allows you to develop your own interests and specialist areas of study. The course provides you with key knowledge and skills for a planning or planning-related career.

It covers topics and issues such as

planning practice, profession and ethics

planning theory and principles

planning policy development and policy evaluation

the English and wider approaches to planning

climate change and environmental issues and protection

transport and infrastructure provision

housing planning and development

the planning and development process

Viability

placemaking and design quality

design issues including urban design and sustainable design

social equity, inclusion and cohesion

economic growth and development

The course also enables you to develop key skills for your future career. These are gained through the modules and the assessment approach and include

negotiation skills

engagement and consultation

research skills

time and project management

self motivation and group working

policy evaluation

viability and appraisal skills

design awareness and design review

political and ethical awareness

networking and professional presence

communication and presentation skills.

The course has been running for over 25 years attracting students from a range of backgrounds including

graduates from a range of subjects such as geography, natural and built environment, humanities, scienceand design looking for a professional qualification

practitioners in planning and the wider built and natural environment fields who are looking to develop their career

Employability

You can find opportunities in both private consultancy and public sector planning in planning and related careers including strategic planning and policy development • development implementation and management • environmental protection •infrastructure planning, housing development • regeneration • economic development • heritage and the historic environment • health • transport and accessibility planning.

Planners are also employed across a range of public and private sector bodies in wider roles, for example in wider policy development and in campaign bodies and pressure groups.

As an internationally recognised qualification the course also opens up wider career opportunities in the global job market.

The Master of Architecture provides a vibrant, challenging and expansive programme aimed at equipping you with the professional and creative skills for a successful career as an architect and leads to Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Part 2 exemption.
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Why take this course?

The Master of Architecture provides a vibrant, challenging and expansive programme aimed at equipping you with the professional and creative skills for a successful career as an architect and leads to Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Part 2 exemption. Through the design studios you will be exposed to a range of related architectural interests, including urbanism, landscape, practice, sustainability and culture, providing a cross-disciplinary learning environment that is appropriate in today’s professionally complex architectural world. We can also provide all incoming, full-time MArch students with funding toward a Course field trip.

What will I experience?

On this course you will undertake studio-based design projects, with opportunities to:

Engage with current collaborative projects with academic institutions in other countries – in the past these have included Turkey, Spain, Denmark and Australia Work on projects with 'live' clients through our RIBA registered Project Office practice Opt to study at a choice of European universities through the ERASMUS exchange scheme

What opportunities might it lead to?

This course is professionally accredited by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). It is structured to ensure the integration and synthesis of contextual, technical and professional complexities inherent within the design process, helping you to engage with the prescribed ARB/RIBA criteria, and attain RIBA Part 2 exemption.

Module Details

The design curriculum is delivered through studios, each having a distinct research topic relating to the research and practice of the studio tutors. The studio topics and pedagogy provide a framework and guidance for student projects in Year One and support in Year Two as you develop your particular thesis questions into design propositions. Studios topics change annually in response to current issues in practice and society, challenging the architectural profession, and offering variety in scale,content and context in the UK and abroad.

Please see our proposed 2016/17 MArch studios below. You can find more information on our course blog and see output in our MArch Gallery.

MArch Studios 2016-17*

Latent Culture- Exploring the Reading, Mapping and Making of Place: Mapping, reading and drawing out, Studio 1 will explore cartography, archaeology, memory, narrative and material of place. Through a series of thematic studies – text and making based – the studio will bring together an understanding of place using artefacts, films, maps and narratives.

Littoral Landscapes: Change Labs for Coastal Experimentation: This studio will experiment with the ‘seeds’ of transformation, focussing on littoral landscapes – coastal villages, towns and cities in the UK and abroad. The studio is the Lab, the seeds are about speculation, growth, invention and entrepreneurialism - small changes which can lead to revolutions.

Urban Futures. Cities constantly change in response to changes in society: Today, major environmental and economic challenges we are facing require new models for the built environment that are capable to be resource efficient, adaptable to environmental modifications and designed to facilitate placemaking.

The Emergent Studio: Architecture of, on and around the Edge: The Emergent Studio explores the idea of making architecture within cultural contexts that are not ‘our own’; always in a location that in some way exemplifies an edge condition. Our theoretical platform for exploring these conditions has been, and continues to be, rooted within phenomenology, drawing from the writings of the humane Nordic modernist tradition, in informing our methodologies of interrogation and design.

Portsmouth: The Anatomy of "The Island City”: This studio continues our reflections on Portsmouth's response to climate change induced rise in sea levels adding an analysis of infrastructures and their impact on developing Urban & Architectural visions for the city.

Tactical Urbanism: Tactical Urbanism will investigate, in a radical and provocative way, how a university environment will change in the future and create alternative and hypothetical social scenarios as starting point for your design project. The aim is not to create a futuristic environment but to challenge the current paradigms and try to address the real problems and issues that our society will face in a near 2050 future.

Coastal Latent Dynamics: Material Voids: This new studio will frame the architectural process, starting with a close up of the Micro (the detail, the material qualities of place, prototyping), continuing to a wide shot of the Macro (the notion of municipality in a coastal context) and then zooming into the Meso (dealing with the opportunities of voids, empty buildings and their environs).

*Please note: studio offers may change due to staff and student numbers.

Programme Assessment

You will be taught through a combination of individual and group tutorials in your selected studio, while year-wide units are lecture-based, complemented by seminars and workshops. Our studio-teaching method will mean that you will be working with tutors with professional and academic experience in their field and all unit programmes are complemented by contributions from external professionals.

Studio programmes will often entail shared sessions with European and, sometimes, other overseas institutions, in countries such as Denmark, Turkey, Morocco, Italy and Spain. Representatives of local public and private bodies and agencies frequently contribute to studio tutorials and crits. All this helps to ensure that your learning and studio research outputs can have regional impact and global reach.

Design assessment is through studio review (crit) as work progresses and portfolio assessment at the end of the academic year. ‘Taught’ units, in support of the design curriculum, are assessed through various forms of illustrated written coursework – both individual and group, such as reports and the Dissertation.

Student Destinations

Careers in architecture are demanding ever-increasing specialism and professional competence.

The unique learning experience we offer on this course will enable you to develop as an expansive, creative and professional individual capable of success in a range of creative and professional environments. The breadth of engagement with the discipline and range of studios ensures that you will become confident in responding to the demands of the profession. The regional, national and international destinations of the School’s alumni are testament to this, as are our graduate employment take-up statistics.

With specialisms in economic development and environmental management, our Town Planning MSc will provide you with the understanding, skills and experience to practise professionally as a town and country planner or surveying professional.
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With specialisms in economic development and environmental management, our Town Planning MSc will provide you with the understanding, skills and experience to practise professionally as a town and country planner or surveying professional.

Through an exploration of the issues which affect the built environment, you will be equipped to critically evaluate how urban development is regulated to bring about the best social and economic outcomes.

This course is fully accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Our delivery is made richer as a result of our direct engagement with the RTPI and the RICS, along with the Town and Country Planning Association and the Royal Geographic Society, as well as with agencies, local authorities, the UK government and EU advisory bodies.

This courses mixes theory and practice so that you'll learn to think and act both locally and globally. You'll also learn how to apply your knowledge in the real world.

The programme benefits from an international and environmentally conscious curriculum that promotes critical thinking, community engagement, partnership building and leadership. It is unique for its outstanding location by the sea, the nearby South Downs and a 180-degree catchment area.

Scholarships

Course structure

In order to meet the high professional standards required by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), students are required to study for core modules as part of the course and have the opportunity for specialist study in allied areas.

Course delivery is divided into three parts:

(i) A taught portion requiring attendance at the university for lectures, seminars, tutorials, workshops, laboratory classes, individual supervision sessions and team working.

(ii) An individual research programme (the masters project) where you will broaden your learning and develop research skills directed at critical appraisal, examine innovative solutions to the problem at hand, and are taught to produce and defend a written thesis on a selected town planning topic with a university-based supervisor.

(iii) An individual professional learning log using an industry-based mentor.

Areas of study

All students will study four core modules and select three option modules. These will allow you to specialise in the areas of the course that interest you the most.

Who is this course for?

• Graduates with unrelated first degrees seeking to study for planning qualifications

• Graduates in any relevant discipline - such as geography, architecture, building, surveying, law - wishing to gain a higher or specialist planning qualification

• Graduates with a first degree in planning looking to study for a masters qualification as a route to a professional career or further study at doctorate level

• Candidates without a degree who can demonstrate significant work experience and a wish to build a professional career will be considered for entry on to the certificate programme initially

Careers and employability

This course is an accessible and flexible route to the skills needed to work in future spatial planning environment - in the areas of planning policy, research and analysis and strategy formulation in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

The course equips graduates with the skills to manage change, think spatially, understand planning policy and law, work in partnership with others, and to continually address the fundamental principles of sustainability in all aspects of their future careers.

Graduates have successfully gone on into roles in greenspace infrastructure, environmental agencies, harbour regeneration projects, local councils, planning offices, and the private sector, for example at Sky, Natural England, the Environment Agency, Parket Dann, Boyer Planning, Mid Sussex District Council, Brighton and Hove City Council, Lichfield Planning and city planning in Luxembourg.

The combination of accelerated climate and environmental change, resource pressures and rapidly evolving social, legal and political contexts demand that the planner of the future is better equipped with the science, tools and skills to help shape the high quality multi-functional places we increasingly need.
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The combination of accelerated climate and environmental change, resource pressures and rapidly evolving social, legal and political contexts demand that the planner of the future is better equipped with the science, tools and skills to help shape the high quality multi-functional places we increasingly need.

What's covered in the course?

On this course, you will learn to identify and evaluate the processes, tools and outcomes of planning that lead to more sustainable places across the built environment.

You will learn how to critically assess planning theory and practice and respond to the growing demand for planning practitioners, strategists and consultants to address contemporary and future planning and development challenges within their environmental context.

This course will enable you to understand the development process and the wider linkages with other built environment professions as well as develop the skills required to assess, analyse and offer practical sustainable solutions to spatial planning problems.

You will experience applied and autonomous learning through the use of real problems and case study materials and develop your problem-solving abilities, practical competencies, critical appraisal and written and oral communication skills.

This course also encourages inter-disciplinary working amongst graduates and professionals from a variety of backgrounds employed within a planning and environment context.

Why choose us?

-This course uses our expertise across sustainability, real estate and planning as well as external experts in planning research and practice to address key challenges and opportunities across the built environments. -This course is underpinned by an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and topics that explore the environmental, economic, social, political and administrative contexts to planning and development and the relationship between planning and other spatial and non-spatial policy mechanisms. -The course has good connections with Birmingham City Council. During the Managerial Skills module, you will have the opportunity to meet strategic staff from the Council’s planning department and beyond. -Birmingham, both the city and the university, is going through an exciting period of redevelopment. You will be based at the University’s City Centre campus, at the heart of redevelopment activities.

Course in depth

This course seeks to shape you as a highly competent professional who can continue to develop not only yourself but also the broader sector.

Practice and research-informed learning, teaching and assessment strategies emphasise problem solving, team working and wider appreciation, with functional and procedural knowledge framed within this broader context.

The course will include problem-based enquiry and learning using the environment as an integrative setting, encourage the demonstration of key competencies within a professional, vocational context driven by engagement with practice and prepare you for a future in which the ability to think and change will be key skills.

Broadly speaking, the teaching strategy moves from staff-led during the early stages of the course to student-led towards the end. The early part of the course is intended to provide you with the basic knowledge and skills to understand how the spatial planning system operates and the need to embed the environmental services lens in processes in order to connect planning across different sectors, land uses and scales. This is achieved through staff-led lectures, seminars and workshops.

Later stages of the course are designed to develop your critical and reflective capabilities and make the links between the various spatial dimensions of planning, and between spatial and non-spatial policy intervention. The emphasis is on interactive learning, including student-led workshops, role-plays and simulations to achieve deeper learning and understanding.

We use visiting teachers, field study visits and research informed teaching to engage you with practice and topical issues. The sharing of appropriate modules across courses helps to enrich your educational experience, and expose you to the perspectives, values and attitudes of students from other disciplines.

The assessment strategy for each module reflects the learning outcomes. Modules that seek to test your ability to assimilate basic information and key concepts and reconstitute them without ready access to source material do so through written examinations. Modules that seek to test higher-order problem-solving skills do so through a variety of formative and assessed coursework methods including essays, evaluations, verbal presentations, posters, planning reports, design presentations, group work, role play scenarios or exams.

This course is accredited by the following organisations:

Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) This course is accredited by the professional planning body, the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). The course is designed as a fast track to a professional qualification accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). Successful completion of this course will lead to Professional Membership after the Assessment of Professional Competence (APC).

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) RICS is the world's leading professional body for setting standards in the surveying industry. It has members all around the globe delivering knowledge and serving the public interest at a local level. In their work, they draw on RICS' ever-growing range of globally applicable and regionally specific standards and guidance.

Employability

Birmingham City University programmes aim to provide graduates with a set of attributes which prepare them for their future careers. The BCU Graduate: -Is professional and work ready -Is a creative problem solver -Is enterprising -Has a global outlook

The University has introduced the Birmingham City University Graduate+ programme, which is an extra-curricular awards framework that is designed to augment the subject based skills that you develop through your programme with broader employability skills and techniques that will enhance your employment options when you leave university.